Various patents have been issued to inventors of disposable grill covers which are generally for the purpose of protecting the underlying permanent grill from the drippings, etc. of the food being cooked. A description of two of these patents follow.
Pat. No. 4,763,639 to Goldsworthy describes a disposable circular flat sheet of foil with holes formed therein for the primary purpose of regulating the flow of air to the charcoal. Since the Goldsworthy foil is in the form of a circular flat sheet, a drawback to this foil is that food may easily stick to the foil, and the food drippings may still come in contact with the permanent grating upon which the disposable foil lies. Further, since the foil is flat, smoke cannot circulate under the food being cooked and thus a barbecue flavor may not be fully obtained. Further, since the foil is flat, the juices from the meat do not necessarily drip through the holes in the foil but may be undesireably retained within the meat.
Pat. No. 3,555,994 to Nemetz describes a disposable foil cover for a grill of a barbecue to specifically protect the wire grill from being covered with grease drippings. The disposable cover of Nemetz is only applicable for wire grills having wire spacings perfectly aligned with the disposable foil cover.
The above-described disposable grill covers are not easily commercially packaged and have a number of drawbacks. What is needed in this field is a disposable grill cover which: may be used with a variety of types of permanent grill gratings; enables a food being cooked to obtain a desired barbecue flavor; enables drippings from a meat being cooked to drip away from the meat; eliminates any problem with meat sticking to a foil surface; and may be compacted into a commercially desireable package.